December 06, 2006

Gooper Scoopers Unite!

by emptywheel

Remember back in June, after Barbara Comstock took on the ethics impaired Jerry Lewis, and I was looking for a new term for these shills who do the heavy PR lifting for GOPers trying to stay out of jail? It seemed to me that Comstock and Rove's spokesperson, Mark Corallo, were inventing a new concept. And lotus came up with what, among a lot of entries, I thought was the best name for this new concept: Gooper Scooper.

Well, Comstock and Corallo apparently haven't spent enough time on lefty blogs. Because rather than Gooper Scooper, they've named their new firm by the completely unimaginative Corallo Comstock. Via TPMM, here's what Roll Call had to say:

With Hurricane Subpoena bearing down on
Capitol Hill, veteran GOP spin masters Mark Corallo and Barbara
Comstock are hitching their wagons to help Republicans fight the storm
and — well, sure — rake in some dough.

Corallo and Comstock are forming the crisis management firm Corallo
Comstock, Inc. They aim to open shop on Jan. 1, just before the new
Democratic chairmen will start banging their gavels and demanding
information from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

“Just in time for subpoena season,” Corallo told HOH.

Damn. I should have patented this idea back in June. Back when Rove still "had the numbers" to avoid "subpoena season."

EW, glad you have time to remark on this "too good to be true" development. Going where the market is, baby. DEMs should have been all over this, hoping it was coming and willing to invest more than the Bayesian analysis would justify (and hence their perpetual downfall).

I'm guessing these savvy entrepreneurs are chasing the American dream and not just shoveling crap on the exposed "roots" that bind them together. Wouldn't that burn?

So, while chub-boy was talking "his math" I'm guessing he really was preparing for the aftershocks of the return of the reality-based... well, reality. Of course, that will leak. Like pappy's tears.

Maybe they will both get to revive their previous starring roles as spokespersons for Aschroft too?

A girl can hope.

EW - on the topic of reporters and secret/classified info and sources the National Press Club has this gig going tonight. Maybe you could salt the audience with someone? If nothing else, Toensing will be there to I guess defend why Judy Miller is a saint and Dana Priest is a sinner. Might get a nice quote for the book *g*

The Future of the Free Press: Should Journalists Be Able to Use Confidential Sources and Seek Secret Information?

Panelists:
Nina Totenberg, legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio
Judge Stanley Sporkin, a retired United States District Judge for the District of Columbia and presently a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
Earl Caldwell, Writer-in-Residence at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University Intelligence Correspondent, Editor and Senior Vice President of The Baltimore Sun
Victoria Toensing, Partner at diGenova & Toensing, LLP
Bob Drogin, Washington D.C. Intelligence Correspondent for The Los Angeles Times
Tim Franklin, Editor and Senior Vice President of The Baltimore Sun
Steven D. Clymer, Professor at Cornell Law School
Lee Levine, Partner at Levine, Sullivan, Koch & Schulz, LLP
Dale Cohen, Associate General Counsel, Media for Cox Enterprises, Inc., moderator.
To reserve a seat, call the National Press Club at (202) 662-7501.

Actually a very respectable panel. Drogin did great work on WMD. And Totenberg got in trouble for reporting the leak of Anita Hill's accusations, though IIRC she didn't have to reveal her source. Toensing? Eh, hopefully they just drown her out.